Nova Pilbeam
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Nova Margery Pilbeam (15 November 1919 – 17 July 2015) was an English film and stage actress. Pilbeam gained attention as a child stage actress. This led to much work in her teen years. She appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), in which she plays a girl who is abducted, following this with her lead performance as Lady Jane Grey in Tudor Rose (1936). She had a starring role in Hitchcock's Young and Innocent (1937), which she regarded as "the sunniest film I was involved with", and formed a constructive professional relationship with Hitchcock. She appeared in an early British television drama in 1939. That year David O. Selznick wanted Pilbeam for the lead in Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), and thought she could be an international film star. However, her agent was worried about the length of a five-year contract; meanwhile, Hitchcock, whose outlook on the film was not the same as Selznick's, auditioned hundreds of others over many months, at last giving the role to Joan Fontaine. Unlike some of her peers, Pilbeam never made a film in Hollywood. She continued acting, with appearances in at least nine British films along with many stage roles, throughout the 1940s. One of her last films was The Three Weird Sisters (1948). She remained working on stage for a short while longer, appearing at the Duchess Theatre in Toni Block's play Flowers for the Living in February 1950. Pilbeam married Pen Tennyson, a great-grandson of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson and an assistant director to Hitchcock, in 1939. Tennyson became a film director the year they were married, but died in a plane crash in 1941 while working as part of the Admiralty's instructional films unit. She was married to BBC Radio journalist Alexander Whyte from 1950 until his death in 1972. Their child Sarah Jane was born in 1952. In her last years, Pilbeam lived in Dartmouth Park, north London. She died on 17 July 2015 in London, aged 95.
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: November 15, 1919
Deathday: July 17, 2015
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Known For
Young and Innocent
1937-11-01
Young and Innocent
Overview: Robert Tisdall finds on the beach the corpse of a woman he knew. Others wrongly conclude that he is the murderer. Fleeing, he desperately attempts to prove that he is not the killer. A young woman becomes embroiled in the effort.
Genres: Thriller Romance Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-11-01
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The Man Who Knew Too Much
1934-12-01
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Overview: While vacationing in St. Moritz, a British couple receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet.
Genres: Thriller Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-12-01
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Yellow Canary
1943-12-13
Yellow Canary
Overview: A socialite poses as a Nazi spy to mask her activities as a British agent.
Genres: Drama Thriller War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-12-13
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Cheer Boys Cheer
1939-08-01
Cheer Boys Cheer
Overview: Shades of "Romeo and Juliet" with rival British Brewery owners who hate each other and their children who fall in love.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-08-01
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The Three Weird Sisters
1948-02-26
The Three Weird Sisters
Overview: Three older sisters live on their family estate in Wales. This household once proudly reigned over a mining town, but the mines dried up and the estate and the town have fallen on hard times. When the land crumbles and a number of homes in the town are destroyed the sisters promise to rebuild the homes.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-02-26
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Green Fingers
1947-06-02
Green Fingers
Overview: A fisherman begins studying to be an osteopath. Although he isn't finished with medical school, he begins treating his landlady's daughter who is believed to have a chronic illness. He seems to cure her, and the case draws a lot of attention, some of it negative because he was unlicensed when he treated her. He still does not have a degree when he marries the daughter and begins practising osteopathy.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-06-02
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Pastor Hall
1940-05-28
Pastor Hall
Overview: The village of Altdorf has to come to terms with Chancellor Hitler and the arrival of a platoon of Stormtroopers. The Stormtroopers go about teaching and enforcing "The New Order", but Pastor Hall, a kind and gentle man, won't be cowed. Some villagers join the Nazi party avidly, and some just go along with things, hoping for a quiet life, but Pastor Hall takes his convictions to the pulpit.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-05-28
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Little Friend
1934-11-18
Little Friend
Overview: A girl becomes an unwilling witness in her parents' scandalous divorce case.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-11-18
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Banana Ridge
1942-04-20
Banana Ridge
Overview: When Susie Long appears, together with her 20 year old son, Pink and Pound are thrown into confusion that one of them could be his father.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-04-20
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Counterblast
1948-05-18
Counterblast
Overview: An escaped World War 2 Nazi doctor impersonates a murdered English doctor so he can work on a vaccination to protect the Germans in their planned germ warfare.
Genres: Thriller Drama Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-05-18
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Tudor Rose
1936-09-01
Tudor Rose
Overview: The tragic story of Lady Jane Grey, the young queen who reigned in England for nine days before she was executed.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-09-01
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This Man Is Mine
1946-09-12
This Man Is Mine
Overview: One wartime Christmas the well-to-do Ferguson family extends a festive welcome to various strays, with comic results.
Genres: War Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-09-12
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Prison Without Bars
1939-07-29
Prison Without Bars
Overview: 1939 BBC studio production of Peggy Barwell’s play Prison without Bars, set in a girls’ reformatory, which was adapted from a German play by Gina Kaus and Otto Edgar Eis. An inmate of a girl's reformatory competes with its superintendent for the affections of its young doctor.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-07-29
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Spring Meeting
1941-01-23
Spring Meeting
Overview: Tiny Fox-Collier and her son, Tony, are broke. A cheery and handsome young man about town, Tony knows he can rely on his mother for a brainwave to save them from utter destitution. This she has: a visit is scheduled to the Irish country estate of her old flame Sir Richard Furze, now a wealthy widower with two daughters. But while Tiny is determined to see her son marry the beautiful but haughty Joan, it seems Tony only has eyes for Joan’s spirited younger sister, Baby.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-01-23
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The Next of Kin
1942-06-15
The Next of Kin
Overview: Lots of slogans such as "Be like Dad, Keep Mum" and "Keep it under your Hat" are visible on the walls in various scenes to reinforce the plot of this British wartime movie illustrating how gossipy talk can result in unknowingly giving valuable information to Nazi spies.
Genres: Drama War Thriller Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-06-15
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Out of Chaos
1944-01-02
Out of Chaos
Overview: Examines the role of art in WWII; featuring Henry Moore's drawings of London Underground during bombing raids, Paul Nash's paintings of aircraft dumps, Stanley Spencer's shipbuilding panels, Evelyn Dunbar's land girls, alongside many amateur artists too.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-01-02
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